Chapter 117

Just look at the current situation of the orcs. Even in a desert with a harsh climate, the orcs can still develop to a large scale and pose a threat to humans.

Although as far as the size of the entire empire is concerned, it is like a small insect shaking a big tree.

But for the Duke of Antica, if it weren't for the assistance from other parts of the empire, this war would have been quite difficult to fight.

Therefore, if we want to bring peace between humans and orcs, unless the genes of the orcs are changed to make them less fertile, or there is a way to control the number of orcs to a safe number, otherwise, real peace will never come.

"It's not that it's impossible to reach peace, but the conditions for reaching peace are quite difficult." Orson corrected. "Who wants to fight? No one wants to fight. Everyone wants to live a peaceful life, but the reasons are too complicated."

"Yes." Lilia also nodded.

She is a saint, not a virgin, so she naturally knows that it is impossible to sympathize with the orcs at this time.

"But as long as the conflict still exists, then there will still be soldiers dying on the border because of the conflict, right?"

"This kind of thing is inevitable. We can only increase the pensions of soldiers so that their families can still live a good life after their death. Only in this way can we slightly alleviate the social impact caused by this reason."

"Yeah." Lilia changed the topic after hearing this.

"Speaking of which, Orson, as the commander-in-chief, why don't you go to the front line and take a look?"

The empire is quite martial, especially the Stranik family, which relies on military force to establish its clan, and has always adhered to the tradition of generals attending battles in person.

But since the beginning of the war, Orson has never even gone to the front line to command operations, let alone kill the enemy in battle.

This makes everyone a little confused.

You, Orson, are not bad at fighting, so why don't you want to go to the battlefield?

Orson shook his head when he heard this.

"Everyone has their own responsibilities. As the commander-in-chief, I am responsible for coordinating the overall situation. If the battle situation reaches a point where the commander-in-chief has to step in, it will only prove that either the battle situation is unfavorable or the commander-in-chief is unavailable. No matter what, it’s bad, isn’t it?”

"It sounds so profound." As a priest, Lilia didn't know much about the issues on the battlefield, so she shook her head.

"This battle is over, what are you going to do?"

"Wasn't Her Majesty the Saint just worried about the peace issue at the border?" Orson smiled. "The next thing to do is to make the orcs unable to attack humans for as long as possible."

Lilia looked surprised when she heard Orson's words.

"Master Osun, do you mean...to destroy the orcs?"

"That's not the case." Orson shook his head. "I don't think I'm that capable."

"However, even though orcs reproduce quickly, as long as we reduce the basic number of orcs to a very low number, even if they can reproduce again, it will take a long time.

It took time to reach its current scale. "

Although what Orson wants to do is not genocide, it is almost the same as genocide.

"But... isn't it because of the harsh environment of the desert that outsiders cannot penetrate deeply..."

"Who said we have to be able to do this?"

When Orson heard this, he showed a mysterious expression.

At this time, outside the military tent, the messengers had already rushed back.

"Your Majesty, Commander-in-Chief, we have a great victory on the front line. Our army encountered 40,000 orcs and annihilated 30,000 enemies. Do we need to pursue them?"

"No need." Orson shook his head. "Inform the front line that from now on, the main task of the army is to push back the orcs on the border back to the depths of the desert. There is no need to pursue them too deep."

"Okay." The messenger heard the words and conveyed Orson's meaning.

"Master Osun, since you just said you would kill as many orcs as possible, why did you let them go..."

"Keep them for another purpose." Orson said and smiled.

…

On the other side, on the battlefield, Lite looked at the tragic scene in front of her, feeling sick in her chest. She supported her body with her sword and couldn't help but kneel on the ground and vomited.

Except for Li Te, most of the other student soldiers had never experienced such a tragic battle, and they all showed different states, but without exception, they were all unsuitable for the battlefield.

The veterans on the side looked at this group of young masters and ladies from the academy and couldn't help but burst into laughter.

No matter how aloof you are usually, how elegant and elegant you are when socializing, but once you go to the battlefield, you behave worse than the big-headed soldiers from the countryside. All kinds of ugly things that are impossible to show at ordinary times are now exposed in front of the soldiers.

Even some instructors looked pale.

Some of them have never experienced a large-scale war, and some of them have never even killed a chicken when they advanced to the seventh level.

Olivia looked at Leeteuk who was kneeling on the ground and vomiting. She stepped forward with concern and patted Leeteuk's back gently.

After a long time, Lite recovered and stood up.

Looking at Olivia behind her, she awkwardly thanked her.

"Thank you..."

"It's okay." Olivia shook her head. "It's your first time on the battlefield. Are you not used to it?"

"Yeah..." Lite admitted generously. "For the first time, I saw so many corpses..."

"This is how tragic the battlefield is." Olivia sighed. "These soldiers who died, whose fathers, husbands and sons were they?"

"Thanks to Orson, if it weren't for his decision-making, our losses would only be greater." Olivia said.

"Yeah." As the adjutant who has been following Orson these days, Li Te is undoubtedly the one who can understand Orson best.

She watched with her own eyes as Orson continued to improve military decisions that seemed normal to her, until they were released with as few casualties as possible.

As a soldier, you are undoubtedly lucky if you can find a commander like Orson.

Even if the mercenaries in front suffered huge losses, it was because mercenaries were suitable for small-scale guerrilla warfare that Orson only used them.

At this time, Lianka also staggered over.

"Sister, the battlefield... is so scary." Lianka looked pale, and it seemed she had just vomited.

"Oh." Olivia touched Lianka's head distressedly.

My sister is also the kind of flower in the greenhouse. It would be nice to go to the battlefield and see the world for the first time.

This can be regarded as a kind of experience and growth.

On the other side, Alsace, as the commander of the enemy troops on the front line, was counting the number of people with his men.

Although the Silver Dragon Knights and the Black Army are elites, they are the first army to engage with the enemy after all. When counting losses, more than 100 of the Silver Dragon Knights' 2,000 people were killed. For the Knights, It was already a considerable loss, and the black army of 3,000 people also lost nearly 300 people.

Arthas originally wanted to pursue, but the message from the messenger was to let the army rest for a period of time before driving the orcs back to the depths of the desert. Although he expressed confusion about this order, Arthas still respected Orson. opinions and did not choose to pursue.

…

Behind, the city of Antica.

In the Duke's mansion, Lucius was lying on the bed, with Duchess Mary beside him.

At this moment, there was another guest in the bedroom.

If you look closely, you will see the commander of the army sent to Antica by the Duke of Naples, Gerald.

At this moment, Jero was sitting upright. After all, he was just a small officer. When facing Lucius, a senior in the army who was also the real Duke, it was inevitable that he would be nervous.

"General Jero." Lucius looked at Jero and said slowly, "Your army performed very well."

"No way, Your Majesty the Duke is ridiculous. If it can be of some help to the front line, that would be my honor."

At this moment, Mary frowned and said with a hint of displeasure in her voice: "General Jero, did you really not hear what my master meant?"

She continued: "It's not that we don't know what your army is doing on the logistics line, otherwise we wouldn't have recalled your troops a week ago."

A week ago, when Jello's troops were responsible for maintaining logistics supply lines, they often withheld supplies for various reasons.

One of the most commonly used reasons is "Our department consumes a lot of supplies, so we keep some extra military rations for military expenses."

To put it bluntly, it's like paying for travel in the past. The supplies originally scheduled for the front line will definitely be less after this period.

The rations became less and they tolerated it. Even weapons and armor, which were consumed in large quantities by the frontline troops, were actually lacking. In the end, the frontline couldn't bear it anymore. After reading Jello's book, Jello had to He led the army back to the city of Antica in despair.

"I'm sorry... There are actually reasons for all of this. Our army is all peasant soldiers. It was their first time fighting a war and they didn't know how to exercise restraint, so the expenses were a bit higher..."

"I can understand all of this." Mary said, and continued to ask: "Then why did you deliberately delay the delivery of the supplies?"

"This...this is for..."

"To check whether there are any dangerous items in the supplies, right?" Lucius added.

"Yes, that's it!" Jero nodded quickly.

"Do you think you can believe what you say?" Lucius smiled.

"This...but this is the fact."

"Oh." Hearing Jero still quibbling, Lucius nodded. "Then, can I tell you about your army's contact with the orcs and the leakage of our army's intelligence?"

Hearing this, Jero couldn't sit still anymore and stood up in panic.

"Duke Lucius, please don't say this nonsense..."

He began to speak incoherently, and then, as if thinking that too much words would lead to mistakes, he simply stopped talking.

"Do you need me to provide some more conclusive evidence?" Lucius said this. Although he was lying on the bed, his aura seemed to be condescending.

"Regardless of everything else, the crimes you committed during the war will already cause your family to be exiled to the northern border and never be able to return home."

"But now, you still have a way out, don't you?"

Chapter 12: Man-made disaster (6K)

Balu rode his horse and fled eastward. He didn't know how long passed before he stopped.

The orc warriors around him, from the scattered tens of thousands at the beginning, to now, there are not many left.

Even though he intended to gather soldiers, after suffering such a disastrous defeat, his appeal was not as high as before.

In addition to the soldiers of his own clan who were still willing to follow him, even the orc clans that had been incorporated into his legion already regarded him as nothing.

When escaping, he only focused on escaping on his own and was not willing to obey orders at all.

And the consequences of this behavior are obvious.

Except for the three thousand orcs gathered around Balu, the other orcs who fled scattered were surrounded and suppressed by other human armies on their way back. By the time the orcs completely exited the human-controlled area, it was already three days later.

In the past three days, except for simple water supplies, the orc soldiers could hardly be said to have eaten anything on the way to escape. Even the giant wolf under Balu's crotch couldn't hold on, and fell down halfway, leaving Balu He could only use his own legs to travel like other orc warriors.

"Chief Balu." At night, in Balu's temporary camp, an orc soldier found Balu with a sad look in his eyes.

"What's wrong?" Balu looked at the other party, not understanding what the other party wanted to do with him.

"You may not know me, but I am fifty years old this year." After saying this, he sighed.

"Fifty?" Upon hearing this, Balu immediately showed a look of respect, and then he looked at the warrior for a long time.

For ordinary orcs, being over the age of forty is equivalent to entering old age, and their combat effectiveness will decline rapidly. In other words, orc warriors who may have had the third level of human strength must be over the age of four.

At ten years old, he may only have the fighting power of a human being.

Balu is only in his thirties now, and he is already considered a very senior person in the orc tribe.

Balu looked at the other party. He was fifty years old, and his mental state was still very good. As for his combat ability, the fact that he was able to participate in his own march proved that his combat ability was definitely not weak.

"Old sir, please take a seat." Balu said, giving up his seat to him.

Orcs have always respected the strong, and the fact that the opponent is still strong enough to join the army at the age of fifty means that he was definitely more powerful when he was young.

"Okay, thank you." The old orc said and sat next to Balu. "Chief Balu, is our attack a failure?"

Listening to the other party's words, Balu's mood dropped.

"So be it." He nodded.

"Because of my fault, everyone has paid so many casualties and losses in vain. I am very sorry."

"I understand that this is not your fault, Chief Balu." The old orc said and waved his hand.

"Although I am old, I am not dementia yet. I have participated in three wars, and the results were the same every time." He sighed.

"The first time I participated in the war, the chief at the time told us that we were fighting for the future of the ethnic group. We wanted to obtain the land that belonged to us, take back everything we had lost from humans, and let humans fight for them. Pay the price for your evil deeds.”

The old orc said this with a look of reminiscence.